Category Archives: video game

Regular readers know that I have a firm rule about reviews: if I can’t finish something, I don’t review it. Ghostwire: Tokyo frequently tempted me to break that rule, or at least to give up and post a summary of why I quit. The story is pretty good, and a lot of the side quest writing was easily on par with the main plot. In terms of graphics, it’s one of the few games on my new gaming box that looked gorgeous without making tweaks in the Radeon app, and the music is fantastic.

Y’all know a BUT is coming, and it’s a BUT at least three times the size of my own full moon. Before I get into the negatives that kept this out of 5 star territory, I really want to dig into the positives that came because I persevered through my early hours of discontent.

Ghostwire: Tokyo is, at its heart, a game about people failing to talk to folks they care about, and the resulting regrets that create VERY bad decision making. This statement could refer to the protagonist, his co-star, the antagonist, any number of supporting cast members, and even some of the enemies. Once the writers and director decided on a theme, they committed to the bit with remarkable thoroughness.

The main character, Akito, is racing to see his sister in a hospital because he was told she has taken a turn for the worse. But on his way to the hospital, he gets into an accident right as the ghost apocalypse begins. HILARITY ENSUES! Continue reading →

I don’t think I can overstate how divided I am on the two facets of Marvel Midnight Suns. One side is a comic book soap opera with limited input on the player’s part, and the other is a terrible card game that almost made me rage quit several times.

I might make comic book soap opera sound bad, but all the best comics from my youth fell firmly and sweetly into that comfortable groove. You can’t have all X-Men battles without some romance and rivalries on the side. There’s no stakes in the fights if I don’t care who’s fighting, or without knowing whom they are fighting for, right?

Conversely, I might make the term card game sound fun, but not only does this version take every annoying aspect of deckbuilding games into its model, it adds new, deeply aggravating limitations to the genre. But I will get into all of that after covering the basics. Continue reading →

Before I begin, I’ll apologize for being late getting this review out. It was already done, but lately the weather has been changing from hot to cold frequently, sometimes as often as three or four times in a single day. Long time readers will know this makes both my body and brain sluggish, sending me to bed for nap times. In fact, I just finished a nap, but at least for once, I woke up feeling ready to work. So, here we are, and hey, how the heck are you? Me? Oh, can’t complain.

So, I was a wee pup when the very first black and white Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles came out, and I loved it. I liked the Archie comics version, and the first TV show. I loved the first two live action movies, and have seen episodes of various series since then. The latest movie featuring a Black teenage April O’Neil as a high school reporter was also quite good, and if the related series ever comes to a local streaming service, I’d happily watch it.

I thin one of the reasons the turtles have such staying power is adaptability, but they also have a kind of relatability as well. They resonate with lots of kids simply because ninjas are cool, but for the outsiders, they also have a kind of resonant pull. They’re outsiders who want to be part of the so-called normal world, and I know I can definitely relate to that.

Well that, and they love pizza. Anywho. Continue reading →

Before I start on the review, I must tell you a scary story. This last week, my work PC just shut down without warning. I had written a new review for next week, and a new short horror story that hubby declared “good.” I also had an article for the glass magazine, so real paid work. None had been backed up yet, and I was in the process of doing so when the system went “Neeeeewwwp!” We have power problems all the time, but when I noticed neither the lights nor hubby’s computer had gone down, fear set in.

Lots of swapped cables led to nothing, so I ordered a new power supply. Nothing. Finally, I had a neighbor ride me into town to look for a technician, who listened to my tale of woe, said he’d need to charge 50 to 80 euros, and he’d send a message when he was done. One DAY later, this hero sends the message along with a proof of life photo and the charge was 50 Euros. And they say super heroes aren’t real. Any who, let’s get on with the real review

I’d heard Respawn’s take on Star Wars called a mix of the space opera franchise with Dark Souls-like combat, and given that I’ve played thousands of hours in FromSowatware’s trilogy, I knew I had to try it. I finally had the chance to do so, and I’d have to say  the reviews I read were either false advertising, or the reviewers had never played Uncharted. Because every facet of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has more in common with those Naughty Dog games, and nothing to do with Dark Souls. Continue reading →

Where to begin with this mythological beast of legendary stature? I guess we can lead with the two main points of hype in the year following its release. Elden Ring was endlessly called a masterpiece, and it was claimed to be the most accessible FromSoftware title to date.

I have played over 300 hours spread across two classes, and that’s a lot to digest and then distill into a brief review. The easier of the two claims to cover is its status as a masterpiece. In this, it absolutely deserves the title. I’ve always liked the worlds of Dark Souls, and while I wasn’t as much of a fan of Bloodborne, I could still recognize the haunting beauty of its settings.

Elden Ring manages to surpass all previous entries, and I can’t tell you how many times I would freeze in the middle of a trip across the map just to take in…everything. The night sky, a gorgeous lakeside view, a cavern illuminated by glowing rocks that made me forget I wasn’t outside staring at the stars, or an underground waterfall populated by a slumbering giant that I’m loathe to wake and break this moment of grand spectacle. Every shift in the biomes is a new reason to stop and soak it all in. It’s a positively gorgeous work of art. Continue reading →

Yep, it took me forever to do it, but I finally committed myself to push through Sapienza’s stunning beauty to play the rest of Hitman, and let me tell you—

“Hold up!” you shout with understandable annoyance. “Where the hell have you been since July?”

Well, see imaginary reader, every month that we were supposed to get my new gaming PC, something came up and the money had to go elsewhere. The vet, paying for a new heater, the TV died, whatever. My work computer was already unable to play most newer games besides indie pixel games, so I just kind of locked in on playing the stuff I’ve already reviewed. I played every Dark Souls, all three Borderlands and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, and Skyrim with multiple builds. But, in December, I finally got my new gaming box (it really is a tiny box that fits neatly under the new TV, and by the by, gaming on a 50 inch TV is so, so nice) which meant I could finally play Elden Ring. And yes, I will have a review on that, too. But in between rounds of Elden Ring, I also decided to download and restart Hitman to see everything it had to offer.

Let me tell you, that is one hell of a game. I can’t quite call it perfect, but it certainly kept me enthralled for the better part of two weeks. Even after I finished it, I felt like I needed time to distill all my thoughts on it. But before I even get to that, I should answer the main question: was it so good that I want more? And the answer is, yes, I will be getting Hitman: World of Assassination in March because I really want to see what other sets they put together for Hitman 2 and 3. Continue reading →

I should probably start this post off with some pleading apology after saying I would do a game review soon and then vanishing for weeks. But what happened was, I started playing older games, and I kept bouncing from one to the next as soon as I finished a run in each. Nothing worth a review, but I had a good time, and it helped me to avoid doom scrolling. I’m calling that a win.

Anywho, when it comes to technology, we live in strange times. My phone, despite being two years old now, has more RAM and storage space than my first PC, as well as more video RAM, better sound quality, and a higher screen resolution. And yet, when it comes to mobile games and apps, we live in a time of virtual garbage.

This is why I initially had hope for subscription models that would make games better by ditching ads, “microtransactions,” (100 dollars for a bag of digital currency is not a micro anything) and loot boxes. But many games on these services are the same mobile shite with the exploitation removed, and that doesn’t change the fact that most simply aren’t fun to play. They still desperately peddle daily login gifts to try and keep people on the treadmill, but when it comes to the actual gameplay between all the lousy menus and worthless presents, there’s not enough incentive to keep going.

Which brings me to Word Trails, courtesy of Netflix’s subscription. It’s pretty much like a lot of other word puzzle games. The top half of the screen is similar to a crossword grid, and the lower half has a circle with letters to link and form words. Any words spelled that aren’t on the grid go into a bonus pot, which eventually fills up to award a pittance amount of gold. Continue reading →

Folks, I apologize for all these delays with new updates. I finished playing the Brotato: Abyssal Terrors DLC for this review before I went to the hospital, but I am still on the mend and find myself returning to bed for long naps with just a few chores around the house. Did I need to ride my bike into town for supplies? Well then, it’s time for a two hour nap. Pulled some weeds in the yard? Three hour nap. This isn’t likely to improve soon, but I’ll do my best to get back on track with reviews.

So, before I talk about the Brotato DLC, I should mention that I had little interest in getting it until I noticed that the achievements progress bar in Epic Game Store’s library page wasn’t full even though I’d unlocked everything. This by itself annoys me. I can’t say if it’s a problem with Epic’s platform only, or if it was a choice of the game maker’s and is the same on Steam, but either way, I should not be penalized for not buying the DLC.

Adding into this is the percent of players who completed the achievements, but I’ll get into that later. (And this will be a recurring theme in my next review as well.) But setting that aside, I decided to get the DLC because some of the challenges sounded interesting enough that I wanted to try them. Continue reading →

Gaming in 2024 became a bit more vexing for me this year. As I’m mentioned several times before, my PS4 died, and my PC is now so old that it can’t keep up with newer games. So stuff like Elden Ring, Enotria, Lies of P, Star Wars Jedi Survivor, and Marvel’s Midnight Suns all gave me a big nope when I tried booting them up.

Now don’t worry, I’m planning to get a new gaming PC in 2025. Whether I get a PS5 is still up in the air, and depends a lot on me getting some new books out. But that’s a me problem, not a y’all problem.

Despite the hardware setbacks, I was still able to find these gems, which I am quite happy to share with y’all. Continue reading →